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thevindicativevordan · 2 years

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Superman in 2021: Year In Review

What a fucking year it's been for Superman. Might be his best year ever? Certainly his best year of the 21st century so far I would argue, we're at the point now where there's seemingly a Superman project for everyone either out now or in the works. Felt like doing a brief overview of my opinions concerning the major projects he's been featured in this year:

Future State - All the Superbooks were good to great for me at least. Standouts were PKJ's Worlds of War and House of El, Watters Superman/Wonder Woman, and Williamson's JL.

Superman & Lois S1 - The first major piece of Superman media outside of a comic since Smallville to not only be good but actually be well-received by the public at large? Man was that a nice experience. Hoechlin is on his way to becoming my favorite live action take on the character, and Tulloch really wowed with some great Lois scenes that show she has what it takes to be my favorite Lois as well. Plus of course our second live action Steel, with Parks already cementing himself as my favorite live action Steel (sorry Shaq).

The Suicide Squad - Bloodsport became the third Superman villain to show up in film, defying any conventional logic. Furthermore he became the second Superman villain in the DCEU to not be complete crap after Zod. Fun movie and Elba gave a great performance, I hope Bloodsport being introduced to a wider audience means he'll show up in MAWS. Gunn has teased more TSS spinoffs which knock on wood means we could get a Bloodsport HBO Max series. Hopefully Bloodsport will return for TSS2 if that gets made, or show up in other DCEU projects.

Injustice movie was ass - You better believe I gleefully drank in the tears of all the Injustice fanboys on Twitter crying about how DC "butchered" their favorite story. Sucksssss to be you guys! Petty cackles were had at everyone complaining that Flash's death was stupid, like the entire goddamn comic they love so much doesn't run on jobbing and people forgetting how their powers work. Hope that's the end of adapting the Injustice stories outside the games, the movie basically adapted the I1 and I2 comics as well as ending in a place where Superman and WW have realized they were fucking evil. I will allow that a loose adaption of the I2 game with a Superman who has realized he became a monster and wants redemption could be interesting, but otherwise I would love to see this Earth get nuked by the Anti-Monitor in the rumored CoIE trilogy.

PKJ Superman/Action - Despite starting off weak (the two-part Golden Age crossover between Superman and Action was apparently a last minute mandate and his brief Superman run was clearly just buying time for Taylor) from Action Comics #1030 onward PKJ has been the best Action Comics writer since Morrison. Even over Pak who I consider hugely underrated, PKJ has brought a level of worldbuilding, ambition, and stakes to the book that have been sorely lacking for years. His take on Mongul is the best since Alan Moore, he has a solid grasp of Superman's voice, the art has been fantastic, and Action is the book I'm most excited to read every week it comes out. Issue 1038 which came out this week was the first time in a long time where "hope" as a concept came up and felt meaningful. PKJ is putting Superman through hell yet it's being done not to tear him down but to build him back up better than before. I pray he gets a long run on the title, if he can maintain his current level of quality this is going to go down as an all-time great Superman run.

Taylor Superman: SoKE - Tough to give this an analysis. On one hand it's done some things I like: Made Jon bi, brought in Wildstorm concepts, seemingly helped establish Jon as Superman, and so forth. Despite Yara and Jace acquiring greater initial interest, it's Jon who seems the best positioned to succeed in the long run given Taylor's sales success. Until now however Taylor really hasn't lived up to the idea of Jon being the one to deal with "real issues" and the series feels meandering and lacking in direction at times. Normally I'd attribute this to Taylor's weakness with villains - he usually can't write any villain well bar the Joker in my opinion - but his recent SSOKE Annual where Lex and Jon met for the first time since Jon became Superman... was actually very good? Lex felt in character in a way I personally didn't feel he was in other Taylor works that used him. Continuing to pull it and see where Taylor plans to take Jon for now, but I need Taylor to actually give me a sense of what the long term vision for this book is, and build up the villains in addition to Jon. Others have wondered if Jay is going to become Jon's "Magneto" and that could be interesting.

Superman & the Authority - Morrison's swan song for their time with Superman was bittersweet. On one hand full of regrets that for all their hard work, they still aren't sure if they were able to elevate Superman back to the heights they dreamed of when they made their Superman 2000 pitch. Yet also a final goodbye to a character they've undeniably left a mark on, brimming with ideas, and with an optimistic faith that perhaps the next generation will be able to carry the character onward to greatness.

Yang Batman/Superman - Short but sweet, we already knew Yang was a good Superman writer, this showed he's a great Batman & Robin writer as well. I hope to see Yang back in the Superline given the new head of the Superbooks, Paul Kaminski, has edited pretty much every book Yang has done at DC, and Javins edited SSTK for him. Kaminski was also the editor for New Super-Man so I maintain a faint spark of faith that we will get Kenan in something soon.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow - Along with the Andrekyo run and Future State, this has convinced me that Kara works best out in space and away from Earth. Really enjoy Supergirl meets True Grit, with a grand tour of the DC Cosmos as the setting. It's my belief that Kara will take on the name Superwoman at the end of this and maybe we'll get a new Superwoman ongoing afterwards? PKJ has said on Twitter he has plans for Kara in the near future but no clue if those are going to take into account what King has done with her here. Be nice if Ruthye stuck around as part of Kara's supporting cast.

Calvin Ellis in Infinite Frontier and Justice League Incarnate - Williamson pairing Calvin and Thomas makes for a fun twist on the World's Finest, Brandon Thomas wrote a great oneshot issue that gave us a "day in the life" of President Superman, and I'm enjoying JLI so far. Calvin and Dr. Multiverse could make a cute couple, I hope they do get together, and am looking forward to Calvin hopefully having a big role to play in the 2022 event that's coming.

Superman vs. Lobo - Unfortunately this turned out to be a dud. Was really looking forward to Seeley on Supes, but neither the attempted humor nor the plot could hold my attention. Shame because I expected to love this given Seeley being a clear fan of Morrison and having done a good job with Superman previously elsewhere. Hope we get a good Superman story with Lobo in it one day, I'm fond of pitting the two against each other.

Superman Red & Blue - Another overall disappointment unfortunately. There were a handful of great stories spread across the six issues, but waaaay too many of what we got were rehashing the same basic story concept over and over. Less of a showcase of the breadth of Superman's world than it was a window into the limitations of the creativity displayed by multiple writers, I have to regretfully label this a dud. Great art let down by tepid storytelling. If I never have to see a "Ma and Pa teach Clark a lesson" or a "civilian saves Superman" or a "Superman comforts a child" story again I will be quite pleased. Maybe I've become jaded but those kind of stories have become too commonplace and have lost whatever impact they used to have for me.

Superman '78 - A very solid nuts-and-bolts Superman story set in the Donnerverse and with the classic status quo for those not enjoying what PKJ and Taylor are doing. Oddly enough reading this is where the brilliance of what Morrison was trying to do with Brainiac really clicked into place for me. Wonder if Venditti was inspired by Morrison's take at all for his own conception of Brainiac here?

World of Krypton - Solid so far and I really love Oeming's portrayal of Krypton. Dude can do trippy scifi like no other. Venditti has been enjoyable so far on these side minis, I wonder if the new head editor for the Superline will keep giving them to him? They don't sell great but they've been well received critically from what I can tell. I'd love to read a Zod mini from Venditti, he's probably the best Zod writer... ever honestly? Unquestionably ruthless but you get a sense of nobility in Venditti's handling of the character that again is present here. Intrigued to see how Venditti handles the Jor-El/Zod split and also hoping for more Kara from him given how well he handled her in his Annual.

Additionally there's stuff coming up in the future that was announced this year which I have thoughts on:

Battle of the Super-Sons - Kid Jon fans get a win! DC animation has had it's fair share of misses lately so this isn't guaranteed to be good, but it at least will provide some new content for people who want their boy back. Going CG animated over traditional animation should be interesting, wonder if it will go for a similar style as the GL show?

My Adventures With Superman - Sucks that it's been delayed until 2023, but on the upside that means it's debuting for Superman's 85th anniversary! Very excited for this, even if it ends up not appealing to me personally it's the first major Superman project in a while to focus solely on him, and will hopefully win over a new generation into thinking he's cool. What we've been shown so far looks great, I hope they do a good job with the villains, and it would be awesome if Steel and Kenan managed to show up in this.

Legion of Superheroes HBO Max animated series - And for us Teen Jon fans and Bendis defenders there's this! Early in preproduction still but Bendis has specifically said this will be using his run as a base, which almost assuredly means it will be using Jon as the POV character. If it does get made I'll definitely check it out.

Mark Waid/Dan Mora Batman/Superman - Another project that seems made to give those not feeling the IF status quo a chance. Excited to see what Waid will do with Mora, he mentioned that he had to reign himself in because he went really heavy on the Superman Rogues at first. Also talked about on Word Balloon how he doesn't want this to be a "retro" book, he's aiming for contemporary storytelling. Apparently Dick as Robin will be in every issue as a return to the true "World's Finest" trio, with Dick making jokes as comic relief. Want Waid to do well and hope he'll turn in something on the level of his Dr. Strange run if not his Daredevil run.

Mark Waid/Bryan Hitch Superman Black Label project - Besides mentioning that this will be set in the Birthrightverse on other podcasts, Waid talked a bit about this on a recent Word Balloon interview. He mentioned that this will explore why Superman doesn't kill. This is totally going to be a pointed "fuck you" to the Snyder fans who kept using Birthright to defend Snyder's take won't it? Heh well I'll check it out, same as his B/S series I'm hoping Waid can knock it out of the park given this is likely his last chance with Superman.

League of Super Pets - Trailer was funny and the relationship between Krypto and Superman looked great. If it does well I hope to get a sequel and maybe even a solo big budget Superman animated movie.

Superman & Lois S2 - From what they've shared so far there's going to be a "Superman" villain and a "Lois" villain, with the two not working together but both threatening the Kent family. Guessing Anderson is just the opening foe like how Irons was, most interesting part for me is seeing how the Superfamily and the Steel family interact given the tension that's sure to be there from living together.

Possibly an animated Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy - Apparently the rumor mill is saying that the 2023 DC DTV animated movies will be a three-part adaption of CoIE. Word is that it will involve every animated DC property ever created, from Super Friends, to the DCAU, to the DCAMU, to the standalone animated movies, and more. Sounds like it could be entertaining if they actually get the budget for it.

Supergirl movie - Curious but need to see Sasha in action before deciding whether to go or not. My guess is that if this actually gets made, it will be a loose adaption of Johns/Frank Brainiac arc in the comics. Maybe Cavill will show up as a co-star here if he's actually in The Flash and WB can come to terms with him.

Val-Zod HBO Max series - Don't care, don't like Val, don't plan on watching. Should be good for those who like the character however. My guess is it will be another Supergirl/Miles situation where they take stuff from Clark and give it to Val. Long as it's not adapting the evil Superman "Brutaal" bullshit and it doesn't screw over S&L from doing whatever they want by poaching villains, I'm fine with this show existing much as I would've preferred Kenan be the one getting a show.

Coates Superman reboot - This on the other hand I'm expecting to be garbage. Coates' time writing Black Panther and Captain America was terrible, he name dropped the DCAU incarnation as a source of inspiration, which I'm not a fan of, and nothing so far has given me any reason to believe WB knows how to make a good Superman movie. With what has been rumored so far - black Clark, Elseworld, set in the past, based on the "original" Superman - my guess is this will be a loose adaption of Superman Smashes the Klan. Fits in with what we've been told so far, lines up with Coates historical interest, and makes for an easy Oscar bait movie about racism which I assume is what this is going for. They should've tapped Yang for this.

Possibly a Superman game in the works at WB Montreal? - No real reason to believe this is coming but with the Monolith WW game announcement we suddenly have proof that WB might actually be willing to greenlight DC games that don't star Batman. They're gearing up pre-production on a second DC game so there's a chance, and given I've written off film Superman as a lost cause at this point, just give me a goddamn Superman game and I'll be happy.

While we're still far behind the highs experienced by the Spider-Man and Batman fanbases, Superman fans have a lot to be thankful for and to look forward to. Situation isn't perfect, there's still projects coming that I'm not looking forward to, such as the inevitable Injustice 3, but for now I can say I genuinely am happy with where Superman is at and I feel optimistic about the future. Seeing people clown him across social media platforms recently when someone suggested the idea of a Supermen multiverse team up in the vein of No Way Home was depressing, I have to admit that. But there's been plenty of great Superman stories that came out this year and most of the upcoming Superman projects appeal to me. The 20s seem poised to make up for the 10s being his worst decade ever. Perhaps at the end of this decade the idea of a multiversial Supermen team up will inspire excitement instead of scorn.

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